From: thistlewait@comcast.net   
      
   What is Faith? What does that word mean?   
      
   Does not the word "faith" mean: acceptance without benefit of knowledge? So,   
   simply by declaring that one has "faith" hasn't one already admitted that   
   they DO NOT KNOW? If one has already admitted that one does not know, then   
   how can anything that one may have to say about their "faith" even possibly   
   be true? When I hear someone declare to me that they have "faith", and in   
   the same breath qualify that word "faith" with the word "truth", is there   
   anyone...anywhere on this planet that can explain to me why I should not   
   consider that I have just be LIED to?"   
      
   I think that humanity is facing a grave problem in the form of "faith". But   
   in a larger context the problem is really a problem of honesty. I don't   
   think human beings are honest. I thought that if I described to all of you   
   what it is that I KNOW has happened to me, that some of you may be compelled   
   to admit exactly the same truth about yourselves. So, this is what happened   
   to me:   
      
   Approximately nine months before I was born, I was summoned into existence   
   by two creatures...who, to the best of my knowledge, had no design or   
   purpose in their collaboration of summoning other than to satisfy an   
   immediate carnal compulsion. To the best of my knowledge, neither of those   
   two creatures (who I later came to understand as "my parents") every once   
   gave a single moment's thought to the idea that they may be summoning an   
   intelligence...sentience...sapience...into this universe that may one day   
   wish to ask them some very disturbing questions. Questions, as it turned   
   out, they were ill-prepared to answer with any degree of accuracy or   
   honesty.   
      
   That is what has happened to me! That is what has happened to all of you!   
      
   Of all the questions that I did ask, or wished that I had asked those two   
   creatures, one question is paramount. But I never asked this question of   
   those two creatures. By the time I had the experience and vocabulary to   
   understand what the question was that I wanted to ask...and the way I wanted   
   to ask it, one of those creatures (my father) no longer existed. Of the   
   other creature (my mother) I found that I had acquired a quality known as   
   "compassion" and I did not have the heart to ask her this question, because   
   I knew how disturbing this question would be in her mind. Now, that creature   
   (my mother) no longer exists.   
      
   So, now, I'm going to ask that question of all of you:   
      
   If, when you summoned me here, you KNEW that you would be summoning me into   
   a hostile universe, where I would face danger and hostility from a variety   
   of circumstances and creatures (including creatures of my own species); and   
   if you KNEW that you could not tell me with any degree of accuracy or   
   honesty what this universe is or what it represents; and if you KNEW that   
   one day I would come into the certain knowledge that one day I must die, and   
   you could not tell me with any degree of accuracy or honesty WHY I must die,   
   or WHAT death represents; and if you KNEW that I would have to carry this   
   knowledge in my mind all the days of my life; and if you KNEW that for   
   simply talking about these things, let alone trying to solve the problem, my   
   fellow human beings would ostracize me, ridicule me, and even seek to do me   
   harm...for nothing more than wanting to know the REAL truth; and if you KNEW   
   that all my fellow human beings, instead of trying to solve the problem, had   
   decided instead to wallow in ignorance and superstion; and if you KNEW that   
   my fellow ignorant, superstitious human beings had embarked upon a path in   
   which I and every other human being would be forced to bear witness to a   
   man-made cataclysm intended to justify the ignorant, superstious, insane   
   desires of "faithful" people in the practice of their irrational dishonesty;   
   THEN WHY DID YOU SUMMON ME HERE?   
      
   Faith, philosophy, systems of thought, paradigms of science...none of those   
   things are religion. All of those things are how human beings have RESPONDED   
   to what we all know religion really is: those questions we ask ourelves in   
   the dark of night that we KNOW we cannot honestly answer. How many of you   
   have lay in your beds during times of personal crisis or trauma and asked   
   yourselves questions like these:   
      
   "When I die, will I be judged for my actions in life?"   
      
   "When I die, have I earned a great reward for my actions in life?"   
      
   "When I die, do I deserve some horrendous punishment for my actions in   
   life?"   
      
   And then comes the most distubing question that any of us asks ourselves in   
   those "private moments":   
      
   "Are any of those stories true...at all?"   
      
   And isn't that the moment when we all KNOW what the REAL truth is? Isn't   
   that the moment when we all KNOW that we DOUBT the stories we have be told   
   since childhood? And isn't doubt like pregnancy, because we KNOW there is no   
   such thing as being "a little bit pregnant".   
      
   But don't mind me...go ahead...perpetuate your "armageddon". Try not to   
   think of these things when you see you children lying bleeding, broken, and   
   maimed...in the name of your "faith".   
      
   You all sleep well tonight...If...You...Think...You...Can!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)